A little pizza history

Conversation hiccupped long enough for Michael to ask around the dinner table, “When did you eat your first pizza?”

“Say what?” was the general response.

“Where was the first pizza parlor in Bluffton?”

Well now, that was totally different.

As best as we could remember, pizza came to Bluffton on a full-time basis at Stubbie’s on Burnt Church Road in the 1990s. I don’t think that was what Michael wanted to hear. He wondered where we ate pizza way back when.

In Bluffton? Was he serious? It wasn’t that long ago that the closest thing to any kind of fast food in this part of the world was The Fiddler down at All Joy Beach and it was only open for one summer. If dining out was what you wanted, you went to Savannah, where over on 37th and Montgomery streets, Porzio’s was the only Italian restaurant in town and I have no idea if they served pizza or not.

Except for the fact this was a food from Italy, I’m not sure we even knew what pizza was. I was still puzzling about Michael’s question the next day and called friends Earl and Illena in Savannah.

“We didn’t eat pizza when we were growing up,” said Illena and Earl agreed. After over a half century of married life, Earl always agrees with Illena. So did Edwina, who has been my friend since the third grade and is used to my oddball questions.

We decided that as young people when we ate out, the closest thing to pizza or any fast food, was picking up barbecue in the kitchen at Johnny Harris’ or Chinese take out from the Canton restaurant.

We had grilled cheese and tuna fish sandwiches at Walgreen’s, shrimp salad and the ubiquitous club sandwich if you felt the need to be fancy.

There were hot dogs at Wienie Roasts and hamburgers became popular when the male population discovered charcoal grills. We even had a few “drive ins,” the Triple X, Our House, The Crystal, none of which served pizza.

Pizza came late into our lives.

In fact, by the time Pizza Hut opened its doors over on Hilton Head Island, it was my grandchildren who loved to celebrate their birthdays in its casual and welcoming surroundings where no one frowned if you ate with your fingers and the servers knew what a Smurf was.

We take today’s availability of fast foods including pizza for granted. It’s everywhere, everywhere, from sit-down-and-be-served pizza to a buffet with all you can eat to take out or have it delivered to where ever you might happen to be.

From the simple pizza margherita to super-deluxe meat-eaters delight, there is a pizza to suit everyone, even the most devoted vegan.

In our family, young and old alike, we eat fast food from tacos to sushi. Who would have ever thought we would buy sushi in Bluffton?

As son-in-law Nicholas commented the other day, “It is a total cultural expansion.”